S4 Bonus 05: Q&A On Asking For More Money

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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Genius Womxn Podcast. I'm your host, Yulia, Denisyuk, an award-winning travel photographer and writer with work in some incredible publications like National Geographic, AFAR Magazine, and more. And this year you see my name in places like Conde Nast Traveler. I'm on a mission to help other women who want to grow their trouble, storytelling, careers, go after their dreams while feeling supported, worthy, and bold. If you're ready to ditch your fear and doubts to the side, step into your brilliance and take action on your dreams. You're in the right place. Let's go.

[00:00:40] Welcome back everyone. Today's bonus episode is a follow-up conversation. So what we talked about last week asking for more money, when we had this discussion inside the circle, our members have questions. And so they I'm sharing this. QMA follow-up with you. This conversation includes answers to questions.

[00:01:00] Like how do you calculate the rate in the first place? What the rate floor is and how do photo rates differ from word rates in this. And just to know that if you've been enjoying or the bonus episodes this time and all the conversations I've been bringing you from inside our membership, the circle stay tuned for next week for a very, very special last bonus episode of the season.

[00:01:26] All right. Let's dive in. 

[00:01:29] I wanted to dedicate today's a weekly check in instead of sort of doing our usual check-in. I wanted to just continue talking a little bit about the rates conversation that we had last week and, uh, give you some, you know, give you an opportunity to ask any more questions.

[00:01:46] If you have. So, what I want to do first is I want to go through the questions that Sam, uh, left us, from our conversation last week. And some of it we've already covered last week, but I'll just run through them again just real quick. And then, if you have any additional questions that you want to discuss, let me know.

[00:02:02] We can also have. This conversation again this month, you know, it doesn't have to stop right here. but I just wanted to make sure that we are talking about this very important topic. So. Sam's questions were, first of all, how do you calculate your rates to start? is it by how many hours you expect to work or something else?

[00:02:20] And the way I approach it is Um, when, when I do this calculation myself, and we'll talk about photos separately, because that's sort of the same. Conversation. Um, but for, you know, dollar per word type rate, uh, you want to sort of determine, both what is the ideal. uh, moms that you want to earn from this efforts, three year, but also how much time you want to dedicate to it.

[00:02:47] Right? Because what we were talking about on WhatsApp earlier, you know, a lot of us have a lot of different things that we're working on and thank goodness for conversations like Ashley. Uh that's we are, being liberated from having to stick to one thing. Right? So we have a lot of different things.

[00:03:04] But with that said, from this specific effort from pitching, from publishing your stories, what is the ideal amount that she wants, Aaron, and then you sort of look at what are the hours that you want to dedicate to that. Right? And some of it comes from, uh, doing the work and gathering the data and looking at, you know, how much time do you spend developing pitches?

[00:03:24] Actually writing the pitches. How much time do you spend researching publications? How much time do you spend following up? How much time do you spend actually creating the article is one, you know, once they're approved all of that thing, and then you want to come up with some sort of a rate that would equate the two.

[00:03:40] Right? But that is not the end of the conversation, because then you also want to look at the marketplace, right? What's happening in the marketplace. What are some of the rates that are out there? For example, if you do this calculation and you, and you realize that your rate is ended up being seven hours a week.

[00:03:55] You sort of know that that's probably not going to not going to happen. Right. Because the highest rates that we see in the marketplace is $2 a word, roughly which, which is, you know, the likes of Conde Nast and travel and leisure bay for their print publications. So. The way I would approach that is triangulate.

[00:04:12] Right? Look at what is the earning potential that you want to earn? Look at the hours that you spend on it roughly, and you can look at it, you know, weekly or monthly basis and extrapolate that out for a year. and then come up with a rate that you like, but then also look at the marketplace and see what's happening there.

[00:04:30] And like we had this discussion last. You know, the rates are sort of all over the place. There are rates as low as two pens per word, which is absolutely unacceptable. And there are rates like two, $3 a word, which is like the maximum that you can get, uh, and sort of find somewhere where you want to be.

[00:04:47] Finally, I would say, find a rate that would be your absolute floor that you won't go below. Right? So when you have these negotiations, it's helpful for yourself to say, okay, if they, uh, if they offer anything below 20 cents a word, I'm not even gonna consider it because that's just my floor and six of that floor, right.

[00:05:06] Six of that floor. And it's going to be difficult at first because you want to get. All of the work that you want right. To build your portfolio, but try to stick to that floor. Um, so that's eventually over time you migrate these higher and higher paying, projects. So that's how I would answer that first question.

[00:05:24] And you guys feel free to just ask your questions right away. If you have any, you know, anything that comes up, feel free to let me know right away. We don't have to wait until the end of the call. and the second question that she she had was how do you, how do you weigh the value of the opportunity versus the base itself?

[00:05:43] And again, this is, this is something that nobody can really answer for you. But I would say that, if this is an opportunity that helps you build your portfolio and aligns with the vision that you have for yourself or a brand that you really wanted to work with, or a brand or a name that is going to open some, some new doors for you in the future.

[00:06:02] Then I would say, You are the only one who can answer, right? The trade-off between the weight of that, or like the potential of that opportunity versus the pay that they're offering. Because sometimes it can be that. And I'll use the example that I often use, which is passion passwords, who can come up to you and say, Hey, Yulia, why don't you write us an article on our website for free, right?

[00:06:22] Then you're like, well, I don't want to do that. But then I weigh that. I don't have a big portfolio yet. I want to start building my portfolio of passion. Password is a quiet, recognizable name. Uh, perhaps we have potential to do something on Instagram together. Maybe I can grow my Instagram, portfolio or like my Instagram community that way.

[00:06:40] So, right. You are the one who is weighing on these, scenarios, and determining if it makes sense. And that's when having a really clear vision of what you're trying to do really helps. Right? Because then you can. measure all these opportunities that maybe don't pay it that well, but maybe have some strategic value.

[00:06:58] You can measure them against that vision and say, okay, this is the line with where I see myself. Let's say a year from now or does, right. If some crazy example, if I Kia comes to me tomorrow and says, Hey, Yulia, why don't you write a free blog post on ikea.com. And then I have to say, well, how does this align with what I'm trying to do is Ikea going to help me build my portfolio is Ikea going to help me open some doors?

[00:07:20] So I wanted to move into the furniture space or DIY space. Right? So you have to ask yourself these questions and that's how you evaluate these opportunities there. And honestly, there isn't like a right or wrong answer here. Right? It's It's all about. Does this make sense for you in this, this feeling good for you?

[00:07:37] Uh, I said a lot. any, any thoughts? Any questions so far on, on this and by the way, welcome Shelly. Welcome Ashley. It's so good to see you guys. It's been so long. And I'm sorry, I can show myself because I think the connection works better if I'm not on video because yeah, it's, it's really iffy here in Jordan, but it's great to see you, everyone.

[00:07:57] yeah. And like I said, if you have questions about any of this, just, just feel free to drop them right away. All right. Next question. That sound was asking at what point should someone decide they're worth more and start asking for more based on the types of publications, read the four based on the size of portfolio.

[00:08:14] And if you listen to our conversation next last week, my. call to arms for you guys is to start asking for more right now, right away, not waiting right not waiting. And I shared with you the mechanism of how we would do that, right? So you get a pitch or you send a pitch and the pitch gets accepted.

[00:08:32] They come back and say, Hey, you know, we're able to pay you X. Uh, you know, by this date, let me know what you think. And here's where you come back to them and say, that's great. Is there any room for the bar in the budget to increase it to wine and just ask politely and ask very, as a matter of faculty, very business life.

[00:08:49] Because again, it's not personal, it's not about you or them. It's just a business transactions. And that's really it. And, you know, they can either say, oh, no, I'm sorry. We don't have space in the budget. We can only do X. At which point you have to decide if you still want to accept it, or they can say, sure, let me see what I can do.

[00:09:05] Right. Because the point is the point that I really want you guys to take away is that when you're not asking, you're leaving so much money on the table. And I shared the example last time. you know, I don't remember now what I, what was the stat, but in most of the cases, when I ask I get it and imagine how much, how much of that, like, I wouldn't have gotten that money if I, if I wasn't asking.

[00:09:26] Right. So when is the right time? So. Right away. Don't wait until you have some better portfolio don't way. And so it's more established just simply. Is there any room in the budget to, to move it to X? Right. So when the very first time that you're negotiating with an editor about a new assignment is the opportunity to ask.

[00:09:44] And again, it's not personal, it's not about, you know, you not having a big portfolio or this or that. It's, it's a simple business transaction. They have room in the budget or no, And then, because I want to say, and don't be afraid that they will come back and start asking you some sort of questions to justify your rate, because that's not going to happen.

[00:10:04] 99% of the cases. That's not going to happen. They're not going to be well. Well, why do you want some, you know, why, what makes you feel qualified to ask for that? They're not going to ask that question there. The point is that they're, they're used to those questions. Right. Lots of freelancers do that. They always ask for that increase or that room in the budget to increase to two Y and again, in the last, week from our session, I shared an actual mechanism of how you would do that and have that floor in mind.

[00:10:31] Right. That's where that store becomes important. and again, that's where you have to ask yourself, right? Is, is it worth for me? So spend an hour or two, or, you know, however many hours it's going to take to get that name on my portfolio and build a portfolio. Where am I going to say that, you know what? I'm just not even gonna bother with this. And.

[00:10:51] Some sometimes when you're building a portfolio, some of these will make sense, right? Again, like maybe this name will open some doors for you. Will it for sure. A hundred percent. I don't know. Nobody knows. Right. We can sort of look at maybe how big the brand name is. Ma maybe it's a farm magazine approaching you or like national?

[00:11:10] No. Okay. Maybe, maybe not national geographic. Let's say it's Matador network approaching you versus, Trips to Scotland. That com I don't, I mean, I don't know. Right. Which one of these is going to open more doors for you? I don't know. I also don't know, but it's sort of a leap of faith or sort of an educated guests that you have to take to say, okay, I know trips is causing the com is a huge website.

[00:11:31] It's very recognizable here in England. So I think it's maybe a good idea for me to add this to my portfolio for this low rate. but I know why I'm doing this, right. I'm not doing this because I'm in the scarcity mode because I think that's the only work I can get. I'm doing this because I want to build my portfolio.

[00:11:48] And because I think it's going to open some doors for me. Does that make sense? What I'm saying? Okay. Awesome. and then the last question that Sam had from our last conversation was, do you have any resources for how surprise photography or video, how would someone start to approach that? So this is a really great question, the way I, and I don't have any, I don't have resources.

[00:12:10] That are beyond what I've created myself. And maybe if I did a Google search, I'm sure you can find a lot of different blog posts and conversations online on how people do that. I mean, I'm, I'm pretty sure you would find something like that. The way I approached it, myself was actually, I looked at, some of the photography works that I did some of the articles that were like photo driven articles that I did for different publications.

[00:12:34] I looked at the rate that they were paying. I looked at how many images, you know, were selected and were printed. And I, I looked at what was the image rate per what was the rate per image from all these different publications and based on that, I came up with sort of, again, my floor rate and my ideal rate.

[00:12:54] Right. Because it helps when you have data, of what publications out there are actually paying. So you can sort of look at what is the, what is the average rates that people out there are paying and then you can start to see, okay, how can I increase that a little bit again? Next time? I am negotiating with them.

[00:13:10] How can I ask for more? Right. How can I ask them? Is there room in the budget? So in threes, 

[00:13:14] Specifically for publishing the photo driven stories, that's how I've. That's how I've approached it because I've looked at the average rates that I've done with my publications. and then I figured out what is, you know, what is my average? And then what is the ideal that I want to move to?

[00:13:29] And again, how you move to it, you start asking that's, how you move to that ideal rate. 

[00:13:34] Yulia: Thanks again for listening. So our bonus episodes, so they, I hope you found this conversation useful, relevant, and inspiring to you. And if you're looking for support opportunities and community in the travel media space, consider joining us in the circle where we have conversations, like the one you just heard on a regular basis, visit genius women that com slash circle to learn.

[00:13:58] Thanks again for listening and stay tuned for our last bonus episode coming your way next week.